Corona Devotionals

It's interesting, we don't have to be taught how to discourage someone...when we are hurt or jealous or even feeling insecure: the digs are dished, and the gossip just gushes.  We get defensive, and the verbal daggers fly almost involuntarily. And we've been on the receiving end of those jabs too.  When someone lashes out (verbally, online, etc) it's like a lead-weight is tied to our heart, and the discouragement is real.  Sticks and stones can break our bones, and words will also  hurt us.   It's easy to discourage someone, and (we all know), it's easy to be discouraged. But what if... We studied some instructions on how to be an encourager. What if we took a shot at seeking and embodying  justice  today?   Let's  establish fairness  in our affairs today.   How about we react and align with  righteousness  today.   What if we praised the Lord for his  mighty, just, fair, and righteous ...

Ahh, the white stone : I love it even before I can know it. ~~~ Do you like to be surprised when it comes to gifts...or are you a peeker?   I'll take a box wrapped up tightly without any clues... anyday.   When it comes to gifts, I don't want a hint, I won't take a peek, and I don't want it early.  I will happily and willfully wait until it's time , and then I love the joy and excitement of unwrapping an unknown gift. Not my husband, though:  He's a peeker .  He likes hints.  He likes early gifts, and he is uncanny at "happening upon" or "walking in" on unwrapped presents that are for him.   I'd rather not  know, but he would rather know... when it comes to gifts. Today I read about a gift that we have not yet received, and that we know nothing about , but I already know that I love it.  I love the white stone --whatever it is!  But, no peeking , and we can't receive it yet. ~~~ Are we living in the city where Satan has his thr...

While at the zoo the other day, we were able to catch a close-up glimpse of a beautiful bald eagle. Bold and strong and majestic and fearsome, it stood only about ten feet from us. That gave me the close range view of his strong body, sharp beak, and feathers. Those feathers : there seemed to be just enough and in all the right places. I was not aware of an eagle's perfect alignment and patterning of feathers before. And I don't mean color pattern...I mean, every feather seemed to be in perfect position: layered and arranged in precise symmetry and placement. One row on top of the next, perfectly placed and fitted to make flight possible, effective, and intentional. Sometimes we can forget the intimate, specific, absolutely-precise detail that our Creator has gone-to in order to create an eagle as an eagle. And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” (21) So God created the great creatures of t...

Some of us are in a state of lack today, and it's not just today.  A moment  of lack, is a moment:  ...a difficult day, or a hard few hours.  It is short-term.   But going without  for a continued-time...causes suffering and poverty  within us. " Poverty " often   makes us think of money/provision/resources: and some of us are  hurting finan cially today.  We are praying for provision...and working for it too, but the out-going is still exceeding the in-coming.   Jesus speaks to us through the Bible today:  “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich!" (Revelation 2:9). “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. This is the message from the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive: ( 9)  “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich!    ~Revelation 2:8-9 ~~~ Maybe our poverty  is in spirit.  The suffering  has take...

No w it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in  prayer to God.   ~Luke 6:12     Is today a day for us to withdraw  to a lonely (quiet/isolated/alone) place to pray ?   Jesus did.   Shouldn't we (as His followers) do that sometimes too?   Is it time? ~~~ Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:16).  It m ay be a  mountain , it may be a cabin, it may be a retreat, or it may be a quiet spot in our own home.  Perhaps circumstances require that  "withdrawing"  means only in our mind, because the situation does not allow for  actual  withdrawal to  a  lonely place. ...However and whatever we need to do to accomplish it today:  withdraw  and pray  today. ~~~ Did we know that Jesus would step away to pray? If (even He) did, then we should too. Yet the news about him spread all the more, so th...